AFTER THE WAR: OCCUPATION

AFTER THE WAR: OCCUPATION; G.I. Killed and 6 Are Wounded in Ambush

By PATRICK E. TYLER and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Published: July 15, 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 14—
An American soldier was killed and six others were wounded in a bold guerrilla attack at dawn today in the heart of the city's affluent Mansour district.

Unidentified assailants fired several rocket propelled grenades at a military convoy of the Third Infantry Division, military officials said. Evidence of the firefight had been cleared by the time Iraqis headed to work in morning traffic.

American forces are at a higher state of alert this week after the formation of the first postwar government since Saddam Hussein was deposed in April. The alert is also associated with Saddam-era anniversaries: July 14, marking the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958, and July 17, marking the coup that brought the Baath Party to power a decade later.

The holidays were abolished by the interim Iraqi Governing Council, which was formed on Sunday.

This morning's attack occurred on the first full day of deliberations by the 25 members, who met privately for more than five hours. Iraqi officials said the Council would send a delegation to New York this month to claim Iraq's seat at the United Nations. The step, some members said, would confer greater legitimacy on the governing body, though a spokesman for the United Nations special representative here said the staff was not aware of the plan.

An hour after the Council members finished meeting, an unknown assailant threw an explosive device from a speeding taxicab at a car parked nearby, engulfing the vehicle in flames, the Iraqi police said.

An Iraqi official said the delegation going to New York would include Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations; Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, and Akila al-Hashemi, who worked in Iraq's Foreign Ministry under Mr. Hussein. Another official said the group might include Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader who is also a council member.

In their session today, the Council deferred the sensitive question of who would be chairman by setting up a rules committee to recommend ways to rotate the leadership. The Council formed two other committees, one to develop an agenda of priority issues and a second to draft a policy statement.

Iraqi officials said that L. Paul Bremer III, the American occupation administrator in Iraq, joined part of the discussions. He asked the Council for recommendations on how to develop an accelerated training program for 70,000 municipal police officers and on how to set up a special court for prosecuting those charged with war crimes.

In addition, Mr. Bremer asked the Council to review the problems of re-integrating the 400,000 members of Mr. Hussein's armed forces through job training and other programs.

But some of the most intense discussions centered on how the Council would project itself to Iraqis, many of them skeptical that the body is anything more than an extension of Mr. Bremer's authority.

At one point Mahmoud Othman, the elderly Kurd who was an adviser to Mustafa Barzani, the late leader of the Kurdish revolt of the early 1970's, asked the group where it derived its legitimacy, a sensitive point.

Mr. Hashemi, a seasoned diplomat under Mr. Hussein, replied that the interim government's legitimacy was derived from a United Nations resolution that called for an interim administration.

Mr. Chalabi objected, and said the new government had to assert its independence from both the occupation powers and the United Nations. The interim government's legitimacy, he said, according to those present, arises from ''the struggle of the Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam Hussein and our participation in that struggle.''

In brief comments to reporters, Mr. Bremer suggested that the occupation powers would still direct the rebuilding of Iraq.

Asked whether the Council would have the authority to sign contracts and make decisions about privatizing state corporations, Mr. Bremer responded, ''The coalition made it very clear in its discussions yesterday with the Governing Council that we consider that the coalition has very broad authorities to determine the direction of the Iraqi economy.''

Foreign investment in Iraq, Mr. Bremer added, ''is an issue on which the Governing Council will obviously want to give its advice, and we intend to listen very carefully to whatever the Governing Council has to say.''

Another council member, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said he expected Iraq to have a fully functioning government within two years, at which time, he said, American and British troops should leave.

''Nobody wants the Americans to stay one day longer than they are necessary,'' Mr. Rubaie said. --------------------

Longer Commitment of G.I.'s

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) -- The Pentagon said today that thousands of soldiers from the Army's Third Infantry Division would not return home by September as expected but would stay in Iraq indefinitely.

Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III, the division's commander, last week announced plans for the division to return home during July and August. But the Army reversed itself today, saying the return of 9,000 of the division's troops had been suspended.

The Pentagon deployed about 16,500 Third Infantry Division soldiers during the war, and about 15,000 remain in Iraq and Kuwait.

Photos: An American military policeman at the ruins of a car that exploded yesterday near military headquarters in Baghdad. After a separate attack, in which a soldier was killed, G.I.'s, below, searched a tunnel. (Matt Moyer/World Picture News, forThe New York Times); (Associated Press) Map of Iraq highlighting Mansour District: A convoy was attacked in the Mansour district of Baghdad.